How food waste is reflected in global statistics, the mistakes we make in Greece when it comes to food management, and how our ancestors practiced sustainability long before the term even existed.
Translation | Amaryllis Tsegou
“Zero waste,” “environmentally friendly,” “eco-friendly packaging” - these are terms we hear constantly today. Too often, however, they function more as marketing buzzwords than as meaningful commitments to sustainable practices. In a world evolving at a rapid pace and marked by growing inequalities, food security and food waste are closely interconnected.
In 2022, 9.2% of the world’s population - approximately 735 million people - faced hunger, a figure 122 million higher than in 2019. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), global food production will need to increase by 60–70% to meet the needs of the growing population. When we factor in climate change and the conversion of fertile land into desert, this concern becomes even more pressing.
At the same time, more than 50% of all calories consumed worldwide come from just three crops: rice, maize, and wheat. This makes proper food management - at every stage, from production to consumption and disposal - critically important. Paradoxically, food waste itself is a major driver of the climate crisis, accounting for nearly one third of global greenhouse gas emissions (FAO).
Where food waste occurs
Food waste occurs at multiple points along the supply chain:
Production: Significant losses occur during production, harvesting, and storage due to poor planning, limited knowledge, outdated tools, and insufficient infrastructure. Overconsumption and the demand for constantly full shelves push production to operate at an unsustainable pace. Meanwhile, successive global economic crises have limited investment in modern, efficient equipment and techniques.
Processing and packaging: To meet standardised consumer expectations, enormous quantities of food are discarded during processing and packaging. This waste often goes unnoticed or is considered unavoidable, despite the valuable resources it represents.
Distribution and retail. The demand for “perfect” produce and flawless packaging leads to the rejection of so-called “ugly” fruits and vegetables or even entire batches due to minor defects. Promotions such as “buy one, get one free,” misleading labels, and oversized packaging turn supermarkets into hotspots of continuous food waste.
In the European Union, around 30% of certain fruits and vegetables - such as apples, citrus fruits, kiwis, lettuce, peaches, nectarines, pears, strawberries, peppers, grapes, and tomatoes - fail to meet current marketing standards. As a result, they are either used as animal feed or discarded entirely, leading to both environmental damage and economic losses for producers. In many cases, the only issue is cosmetic: irregular shape or size.
Overall, more than 58 million tons of food are wasted annually in the EU - approximately 10% of all food available on the market. This amounts to 131 kg of food thrown away per person each year, with an estimated market value of €132 billion.
At home. In Greece in particular, frugal eating habits are largely absent. Large quantities of food are wasted at the household level, mainly due to lack of time, rushed shopping decisions, and poor food planning. Modern lifestyles affect not only how we buy and discard food, but also contribute to high rates of childhood obesity and cardiovascular disease in the country.
The lack of education and the failure to adopt good practices within families and schools - combined with a tendency toward overconsumption - result in tons of edible food ending up in the trash. The same applies to restaurants, where we often order far more than we can eat, while taking leftovers home is still considered embarrassing by many Greeks.
A habit we must relearn
Reducing food waste is not a passing trend - it is a way of life. At a time when living costs are rising alongside consumer needs, we must pause and reflect on the world we want to pass on to future generations. In many cases, the answer already exists in our collective memory: our grandmothers preparing jams, preserves, and sauces for the winter.
By respecting seasonality, they used the best available ingredients at the right time and made full use of them, employing methods that today are presented as innovative or “hybrid.” The same applies to food traditions around the world, such as kimchi. While it may now be considered trendy, in Korean cuisine it has deep nutritional and cultural roots.
Fermentation and preservation techniques may seem complex or avant-garde today, but for previous generations they were simply practical solutions - ways to protect food from harsh winters or long summers, and to cope with the fact that ingredients were not available year-round as they are now.
Ultimately, reducing food waste is about respecting raw ingredients, just as our grandparents did. They grew their food. They harvested it with their own hands. When you’ve worked for your food, you value it differently. Somewhere along the way, we lost that respect - and it’s time to reclaim it.
